With its low self-esteem and high urban blight, Hartford is the ultimate underdog city. Sad City Hartford documents the joys, sorrows and eccentricities of New England's Rising Star.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Roger Waters Rocks XL Center

Friday night the legendary Roger Waters came into Hartford to perform The Wall at the XL Center. At 68 years old, Waters performs as if he is twenty years younger and we doubt anyone in the filled to capacity XL Center would claim they didn't get their moneys worth.

The Wall, separating the audience from the band, is built during the first half of the show while Waters performs. An early highlight of the show came when local Hartford kids danced during "Another Brick In the Wall." After the song Waters explained that in each town a group of local kids were selected to perform and sent a tape of the dance. Waters went out of his way to praise the kids and let them know they should be proud. It was a really nice touch and no doubt a thrill for locals kids to perform on that stage.

Shortly after that another highlight followed as Waters performed a duet with himself singing "Mother" in from a 1980 London performance. A very cool idea and remarkably executed.

Watching Waters perform one of his legendary songs 32 years ago brought home the point of just how long and how remarkable his career has been.

A brief intermission really hammered home how badly the XL Center is in need of wider concourses with modern concessions and bathrooms. With a near capacity crowd, the lines were absurdly long and spilled into the concourse impeding traffic and causing Pink Floyd t-shirt clad human longjams.

If the capacity crowd was a tribute to Waters legend, it also served noticed as to what a relic the XL Center has become in some regards.

In the same week that Howard Baldwin and his NHL dream broke the CT Whale, one couldn't help but wonder how much longer Hartford would be able to draw such top tier acts without some renovations to the XL Center.

In the second half of the show, The Wall was the dominant feature. Now fully built, amazing graphics accompanied the music. With a primarily anti-war and anti-government message, Waters' idealism still rang true with the crowd after all these years.

The flying pig: "Trust Us"

Before the show ended with the breaking down of The Wall and an amazing and heartfelt ovation to the rock legend, the crowd was mesmerized by the visuals and performance of "Comfortably Numb." One couldn't help but to be in awe and feel extremely lucky to get to experience one of rocks iconic songs performed by Waters himself.

Thanks to Waters and the XL Center for putting it together and bringing him into town.